peadiatric assessment, feel it was a waste of time

[saladsandwich]

ds had his first assessment this week and i had writtn stuff down ect but the dr didnt really ask much, he did somethings with ds and some stuff he did brilliantly with but other things not so, he did say probably all his problems are linked to speech but he witnessed ds just leant against a wall head and back banging and making a noise but i didnt see him write any of these behaviours down, just did the tests is this normal? i told him he did it at home alot, also he did the tests with ds but never said which ones he should be able to do ect? i thought it would have helped, feel more helpless than ever with ds xx

Do you have a follow up appointment? Will the Paed observe your DS again? Next time you see him, try to have an idea about what you'd like the appointment to lead to. eg, referral to SALT, an idea of what DX, if any, the Paed is thinking of, how long, how many observations til DX. Can the Paed DX of does it require a multi agency appointment? Etc.

Sorry it was so frustrating. That's happened to me before, so now I go in with a pushier attitude!

well, he is seeing him in 6months time, ds does have quite abit in place thanks to alot of hard work from the health visitor he has SALT, i just really thought that i would get some answers, ds has come on so much i thought he would be discharged but then some of the things that pead asked him to do he had no clue

i wish he'd told me where ds was at or atleast told me if the things he could/couldn't do are normal for his age. only thing he told me with regards to his behaviour was the webster stratton parenting thing which is fair enough but why is he doing the extreme behaviour? arghhhh nightmare xx

I don't know whether its your first appt but i think that they do tend to wait 6 months to see how things are progressing. Frustrating though it is!! When we waited 6 months I took pen to paper and wrote lists of the behaviours during that time.

thanks for the replies... it was his first appointment, hes ony 2 and half but he really seemed to brush aside my concerns with behaviour, ds just laughs at me if i try to tell him no, he ran into the road again today after slipping his wrist strap yet again so looks like its back to the reins. i just have this feeling that they will just wait and see like they did with my nephew, he is diaagnosed with autism now and cannot talk and i see alot of my nephew in ds apart from my ds is now coming along wth speech everything else is the same, concerns me xx

i cant fault some of the people who have helped him, the health visitor as been fantastic one of his gps, even SALT we have had a good experience with, people pulled strings to get ds a nursery place for under 3s... he has his next CAF soon so atleast i can say what i think then, waiting to see what this report says but ds was stood against a wall smacking his head and back against it and i didnt see him write it down but i dont know if he should have or not. xx

saladsandwich

you may find this collection of research papers of some interest Early Development which started life last week when trying to find related information on another MN thread.
The behavioral criteria for a diagnosis of autism can be observable between the ages of 2 and 3 years old.
But many of the individual cognitive developmental issues, some of which can be contributory factors as underlying causes of autism can not be diagnosed until after the age of maturation 7 - 8 years old when children stop growing out of developmental problems. Until that age children develop their various cognitive abilities at different ages and at different rates.

thanks, not sure how to get onto that link dolfrog... the thing is with ds, i dont think he has autism but i just get the sense something is wrong, i know every child develops differently and they are all unique but i just feel it, even as a baby he was late with certain things... imo his cognitive development is not too bad, im not sure if all the peadiatric assessments are the same but ds was great at the jigsaw, colour matching which i think are cognitive tasks??the other tests like pointing at things in a book he didnt do so well (but can do it at home), pointing at black and white pictures he consistently pointed at the wrong things when asked to point to a certain picture. xx

they usually observe and contact nursery or carers caf salt ot, and also need to see how he improves with SALT a heck of a lot can change in 6 months for one so young and certain worrying behaviours could disapear. they would only usually give a verbal dx of he may be possibly X or hes showing signs of Y when a dc is extreme more obvious case ie classic autism or extreme ADHD and stands out like a sore thumb, but even then they will contact other healthcare profs and nursery ect plus time will also tell if there is an underlying cause to delay in speach and language or more physical delays so they will be cautious not to miss dx

thanks for that drivemecrazy63, your post has helped me alot, no one explains what to expect from any of these appointments and i dont want anything to be missed, i think with ds there is so many little minor things there must be some reason why, maybe he is just unlucky and its coincidence but even medically he's had a tough time xx